JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board named an 11-member search committee during its July 10 meeting at the Baptist Building to seek a successor to David Clippard, whom the board dismissed three months earlier.
James Freeman, a 43-year-old attorney from Oakwood Baptist Church in Kansas City, was named chairman of the committee. He is a member of the MBC Executive Board and an attorney on the MBC legal team in its action against five Missouri Baptist institutions, including The Baptist Home, Missouri Baptist Foundation, Windermere Baptist Conference Center, Missouri Baptist University and Word&Way.
John Marshall, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church, Springfield, was named vice chairman. In addition to the 11 voting members, MBC president Mike Green of Republic was named an ex-officio member with non-voting status.
The Pathway reported that the committee was approved “with an overwhelming show-of-hands vote with only token opposition. A motion challenging two of the committee members was also easily defeated.”
The other nine members include Lyn Heying of Palmyra; Jody Shelenhamer of Bolivar; Jeff Purvis of Imperial; Diana Chambers of St. Louis; Gary Barkley of Excelsior Springs; Ed Hamilton of Houston; Larry Fackler of Versailles; Doug Austin of Cape Girardeau; and Randy Comer of Chillicothe.
“Our committee feels that this is a very well-rounded, broad perspective for a committee of Missouri Baptists,” said Jay Scribner, chairman of the Executive Board’s administrative committee, which recommended the makeup of the search committee.
Scribner chaired the administrative committee when it recommended the search committee that brought Clippard before the Executive Board nearly five years ago.
